Harvard University!! I just HAVE TO go to this college!! I want it too bad...
My dream college!
I hope one day I'll be there...

5 years

The guy who just bashed on USC and Berkeley is probably mentally incapacitated. If he happens to go to UCLA, he is additional proof that UCLA students are more thickheaded than the students of Berkeley and USC- just look at his worse-than elementary spelling. Actually you know what, he probably doesn't even go to UCLA because the amount of his dimness shining through his comment is so great and potent that UCLA would instantly reject his a$$. Lol.

5 years

The guy who just bashed on USC and Berkeley is probably mentally incapacitated. If he happens to go to UCLA, he is additional proof that UCLA students are stupider than the students of Berkeley and USC- just read his worse-than elementary spelling. Actually you know what, he probably doesn't even go to UCLA because the amount of his stupidity shining through his comment is so great and potent that UCLA would instantly reject his a$$. Lol.

5 years

UCLA is the awesome! I love it, we're amazing! I had to choose between UCLA and Berkeley and chose Ucla. Proud to be a Bruin where we have a tradition of being the best! Berkeley was a dream school for me until I realized how much greater Ucla is, a lot more people than you think are starting to pick LA over Berk. Bruins on the rise, academics and sports :)

5 years

Ucla is the best school, amazing campus and beautiful woman everywhere. Usc are terrible scum of the earth. Berkeley is awesome if you love having no life watching hippies smoke weed in trees for 24 hours a day and also I have never seen an attractive female go to Berkeley, please God just let one girl be attractive.

5 years

Vincetastic is obviously just a kid who just got denied from USC, or worse- a Bruin! USC is amazing! Fight On!

I'm a UT student and I LOVE it. It's the only place I applied because it's the only place I wanted to go, and was guaranteed admission.
Also, it might not be one of the "top" schools in the nation, but I'm a CS major and our CS program outranks most of the schools on that list.

Wildegurl: I'm from Texas and the Longhorns are my favorite Texas team! Hook 'em indeed! :D
That said, I didn't mean to imply that all big-name schools are diploma mills. But from what I've seen, from students that have graduated from those institutions that I've had to work and collaborate with and friends who strongly desired those schools, their education, experience and knowledge seems impersonal. It could be because of the simple largeness of the school, but some of these schools are fairly small, and are decidedly elitist - which doesn't help, either. Though I wouldn't recommend my undergrad right now at the moment, I believe I made the best decision for myself and got an education that is at least on par [and at best, more well-rounded] with a big-name school. I still think it's pretty ridiculous to choose schools to attend based on name only. Sometimes it's important [if you need connections to get where you want to go later on], but obsessing about it only stiffens the competition at those schools and ignores schools that may be better for a particular applicant simply because their names aren't nationally recognized. That's what I meant to say.
Slightly-off-topic comment: As much as I wish I could have gone to UT Austin [I did get in, which is a miracle for Texas residents who aren't in the top 10% of their high school graduating class!], a big-name school, I realize now that if I had, I wouldn't have been able to make any sort of impact or rise above the competition to stand out there, at least in my field(s).

USC, really? You just have to have enough money to get in. I'm surprised more parents wouldn't choose more Ivy League Schools, I would think that they would dominate the whole list. This is a really great top ten list, anyone can post their own to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

I was my high school's valedictorian and lots of people assumed I was going to go to one of those schools. However, after I found out how much the tuition was, I decided that I didn't want to be $200,000 in debt starting out in life. I went to UW-Madison and it was a fantastic experience for me. I got a wonderful education and I met my husband as well, so I'm not going to complain. Plus, Big Ten football games are some of the best out there...go Badgers!!!

margokhal: i can see where you are coming from when you make the comment about big-name colleges but the professors and instructors for most of my classes were just as passionate about teaching and connecting with the student body than at a smaller school. Going to UT Austin definitely made me feel like a small fish in a big pond (I had freshman classes of about 200), however once you get into your smaller core classes (class sizes of 5-9 students) it didn't feel so overwhelming. It may feel like students at big campuses are just cranked out every year like widgets in an assembly line, but it's unfair to say that just because you were at a smaller campus you received a better education. And here's an obligatory "Hook Em!"

I didn't apply to ANY of these for undergrad! I went to smaller, more unknown school for my undergrad. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have gotten as great an education at a big-name college where they care a lot more about results than developing people and future leaders/workers and whatnot.

Amen, Pinklizzie.
Your dream school should be the best fit for you --- not the school that will impress your parents' friends !
I went to Univ of MD College Park and loved it ! Met my husband there, too :)